Guy B. Purcell, Ph. D.
4221 Skymont Dr.
Belmont CA 94002
650-508-0752
guy@extragalactic.net

Objective

I'm seeking a position as a UNIX system administrator, wherein I can use my excellent problem solving and communication skills, and can learn from my peers.

Skills

Profile:

• SAGE Level III/IV
• Mature, patient
• Excellent communication, inter-personal, & teaching skills
• Organized & able to prioritize tasks
• Good team player, but able to work independently & on own initiative
• Excellent problem solver
• Detail oriented, but also able to see the big picture

Software:

• Content servers & reporting: Apache, WebLogic, DoubleClick AdServer, Analog
• Common UNIX services: DHCP, DNS/BIND, FTP, HTTP, NFS, NIS, sendmail/SMTP, SSH/SSL, etc.
• Special tools: Jumpstart, KickStart, Orca/MRTG/RRD, RCS, Remedy ARS, RT, RPMs, Sun PKGs, etc.
• Filesystem tools: Solaris DiskSuite/Volume Manager, Sun Cluster, Veritas FS, VM, CS, & NetBackup

• Over 20 years working with UNIX

Hardware:

• Sun servers (Enterprise 220R through E6500; Netra t1 & 1125; SunFire V120 through V890 & T2000, and Intel-/AMD-based V60x & V20z)
• HP servers (ProLiant DL360 & DL380/385 systems)
• Sun SAN & JBOD disk systems (D1000, A1000, A5x00, & StorageTek 6140)
• Cisco routers and switches (been a while, though)
• NetApp (several, including an F940 cluster) and EMC (CLARiiON IP4700) NAS/filer systems
• Various tape systems (DLT, AIT, DAT, & LTO) as single drives, stackers, & jukeboxes (Spectra Logic Treefrog & Gator systems, for example)
• PCs & Macs, or course
• Some telephony equipment (long ago)

Operating Systems:

• UNIX (SunOS 4 through Solaris 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS, some FreeBSD)
• Mac OS X)
• Familiar with Windows

Programming Languages:

• C
• Shells
• SQL
• Elementary (very) Perl
• FORTRAN

Recent Work Experience

May 2006—Aug 2007, Senior System Engineer, Gemini Mobile Technologies

Particular accomplishments include:

• Improved flexibility of the product installer to allow its use with clusters from 1 to N nodes
• Designed Sun cluster system (then redesigned it repeatedly to meet changing requirements)
• Planned & managed server room power upgrade

Nov 2004—May 2006, Senior UNIX Systems Engineer, TradeBeam

Particular accomplishments include:

• Integrated all OH development, QA, & core IT systems with similar TB systems
• Identified and am helping to fix critical flaws in the TB infrastructure (am currently rebuilding their DNS systems)
• Rebuilt the OH Jumpstart system with more flexibility to enable building of non-OH-specific Solaris systems, including new hosts running Solaris 10
• Planned & implemented the shutdown & move out of OH production & DR co-location spaces

Jan 2003—Nov 2004, Senior UNIX System Administrator, Open Harbor (acquired by TradeBeam)

Particular accomplishments included:

• Increased automation of & thus time required for application deployment by writing necessary shell scripts and by modifying application packaging
• Built out a disaster recovery co-location facility (with the OH network team), building, configuring, and installing all servers
• Built & deployed almost all Linux production systems, migrating the in-production application onto them
• Re-designed the corporate backup system, and built the production backup infrastructure using Veritas NetBackup 4.5 & 5.0 and Spectra Logic Treefrog & Gator tape libraries, respectively
• Implemented a ticket-tracking system for the Operations/IT group (RT & PostgreSQL on a Linux box)

Jun 2002—Jan 2003, Self-employed/Consultant

Perform various system administration tasks, as required. Examples include:

• Installed & configured roughly 20 Windows 98 PCs for Fox Elementary School (physically cleaned them out internally before installation, then removed unnecessary files and applications from the hard disks after installation)
• Created and continue to maintain & host website for King's Mountain Archers in accordance with their specs
• Added back-end database to King's Mountain Archers' website (compiled, installed, & initialized PostgreSQL on Apple Mac G4 running OS X; implementing its use--designing, creating, & populating tables, and writing CGI & HTML interface code—in progress)

Aug 2001—Apr 2002, Senior System Administrator, Tech TV

Particular accomplishments included:

• Acquired, installed, configured, and managed EMC/CLARiiON IP4700 file server
• Contributed significantly to saving TTV more than $25,000 per month by bringing several previously out-sourced services (notably ad-serving, newsletter bulk emailing, and site statistic gathering & reporting) in-house
• Helped transfer all website systems (roughly 30 servers--Sun E420Rs, Netra t1s, and Ultra 5s; plus half a dozen network systems--Foundry NetIrons, FastIrons, and ServerIrons) to new co-location facility (planned the move, including how best to keep the site available during the move; planned new co-location rack layout; unracked systems; reracked systems; made the cutover to the new site via A-record changes in the DNS)
• Took charge of website backup system, cutting backup time by 2/3 while vastly improving backup reliability and reducing tape usage (reconfigured Solstice Backup/Legato Networker to avoid backing up server OSes, which could be recovered via Jumpstart; to give the DB- & web-servers separate tape pools & schedules; and to backup all server data)

Peripherally Related Experience

• Martial artist: Tae Kwon Do black belt
• Instructor: Taught college courses, including preparation of all materials & exams; gave symposia; created (& still teach) Basic Astronomy, a distance learning course offered through UA
• Author: Wrote articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals; wrote physics and astronomy course syllabi and other documentation; am currently writing a lab manual to be used in a second UA distance learning course
• Administrator: Board member and officer of both King’s Mountain Archers, Inc. and BayLISA, Inc.

Education

• Ph. D. Physics (focus in Astronomy), University of Alabama, 1998
• M. S. Physics, University of Alabama, 1994
• B. S. Astronomy (CS & Math minors), San Diego State University, 1989

Professional Affiliations

• BayLISA
• AAS

References

Available upon request